(born Dec. 26, 1904, Lausanne, Switz.—died April 24, 1980, Paris, France) Latin American novelist, essayist, and playwright, a leading literary figure. Born to a French father and a Russian mother, Carpentier spoke French before he learned Spanish, although he was taken to Havana, Cuba, as an infant.
Educated in Havana, he helped found the Afro-Cuban movement that sought to incorporate African forms into the arts. He initiated the use of magic realism in his story collection Guerra del tiempo (1958; War of Time). His best-known novel, Los pasos perdidos (1953; The Lost Steps), portrays a character who travels to the Orinoco jungle in search of the origins of time. Carpentier fled Cuba in 1928 and settled in Paris. In 1945 he went to Venezuela, but in 1959 he returned to Cuba and became a diplomat in Fidel Castro's regime.
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